An Applied Research Project Sponsored by Algonquin Student Association

This project was an enterprise-wide undertaking with sponsorship from the Student Association, funding from the Applied Research Initiative at Algonquin, and staff support from Physical Resources, Information and Communications Technology department, Information Technology Services, Learning and Teaching Services. Thanks to the everyone who contributed to the project!

Purpose and Scope

WayFinder is an interactive mapping tool to serve visitors, staff and students to Algonquin College’s Woodroffe campus. Users can search for the destination they wish to visit by directly entering the room number, choosing the location from a dropdown list of Points of Interest, or follow a link which includes a suffix to be interpreted by the website. This tool will help those to navigate between rooms on campus in addition to identifying POI locations which are better known by their name rather than their room number.

Another purpose of Wayfinder is to improve accessibility of the campus. WayFinder includes an option to avoid stair, and will route you using the closest elevator or accessible ramp.

Building the Network Dataset:

Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop was used to create the geodatabase, network dataset, and develop the map document which would be published as a map service. Several models were developed to automate synchronization of the college’s official CAD drawings from the college’s physical resources department. The network dataset included centerlines digitized along the campus’s hallways, stairwells and elevators. Points representing the individual rooms were generated at the ends of those centerlines and a model populated the point fields by copying room numbers from overlaid room polygons.

Building the Map Service:

The visual layout of the map service was developed using ArcGIS
desktop. Layer draw order, representation and labeling properties
were set using the desktop software. In addition to the background
layers, a route was created using the network analyst toolbar and a
table with corresponding Point of Interest (POI) names and locations
were added to the map document. This was then shared using
ArcGIS Server as a map document.

Feedback:

Errors to report? Good ideas for the next version? We would love to hear from you. Email Mike Ballard